The Official South African Charts (TOSAC) is the

music industry The music industry consists of the individuals and organizations that earn money by writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling recorded music and sheet music, presenting concerts, as well as the organizations that aid, train, ...

standard

record chart A record chart, in the music industry, also called a music chart, is a ranking of Sound recording and reproduction, recorded music according to certain criteria during a given period. Many different criteria are used in worldwide charts, often ...

in South Africa launched by

RISA Risa may refer to: * Risa (given name), a feminine given name * Risa (Star Trek), a fictional planet * Radioiodinated serum albumin * Recording Industry of South Africa Recording Industry of South Africa (RISA) is a trade association repres ...

for local and international songs. Chart rankings are based on digital sales and

online streaming Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...

in South Africa through

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

Apple Music Apple Music is a music, audio and video streaming service developed by Apple Inc. Users select music to stream to their device on-demand, or they can listen to existing playlists. The service also includes the Internet radio stations Apple M ...

, and

Deezer Deezer is a French online music streaming service. It allows users to listen to music content from record labels, as well as podcasts on various devices online or offline. Created in Paris, Deezer currently has 90 million licensed tracks in ...

. The charts were launched in South Africa on 1 September 2021, becoming the only South African chart to focus on songs on digital music streaming services. The first official number-one hit on the chart was

Ed Sheeran Edward Christopher Sheeran (; born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter. Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, he began writing songs around the age of eleven. In early 2011, Sheeran independently r ...

's " Bad Habits".

History

Music charts in South Africa were initially presented by

Entertainment Monitoring Africa The airplay music charts in South Africa were gathered and published by the company Entertainment Monitoring Africa (EMA), formerly known as Mediaguide South Africa. It is a member of the Times Media Group, under Entertainment Logistics Services ...

, based on radio airplay only, however the company became defunct in late 2016. The

Recording Industry of South Africa Recording Industry of South Africa (RISA) is a trade association representing the interests of major and independent record labels of South Africa. Located in Randburg, RISA is responsible for running the annual South African Music Awards (SAMA ...

later announced plans to launch a South African chart, citing the robust music industry in the country, particularly due to the shift in how people consume music in recent years through digital media, with more South African audiences making use of streaming. The chart launched in September, 2021, featuring a local and international top 100, and a separate local top 100 which encompasses South African artists only. Charts on the platform include the Weekly Top 200 Tracks, which takes into account all tracks streamed in South Africa. The chart week runs from Friday to Thursday and only digital streaming figures are taken into account.

Chart synopsis

The chart aggregates data from Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer, and data is aggregated by Barcelona headquartered BMAT. Spotify launched in South Africa in 2018, whereas Apple Music and Deezer have been available since 2015 and 2013, respectively. Charts on the platform run a weekly Top 200 Tracks, which takes under consideration all songs streamed in South Africa, together with each native and international music. The weekly High 100 Native ZA solely includes songs whereby at the very least one of many credited artists is from South Africa. Chart weeks run from Friday to Thursday and only digital streaming numbers are taken into account. The number of streams shown in the charts is always weighted, so that subscription streams have more relevance than ad-funded streams. Currently, no track exclusion policy or accelerated decline method is being applied (this refers to songs being removed if their streams decline). Different versions of a song are aggregated to their corresponding original song, which include the same song with additional featuring artists, DJs remixes, as long as the original artist is credited and different language/country versions.

Chart records

Artists with the most simultaneous song debuts on the chart

References

{{reflist Record charts by country 2021 establishments in South Africa